Moderation policy: HRD to call meeting of CBSE, state boards

Officials from CBSE and other boards will soon be meeting to discuss the way forward on scrapping the moderation policy

Moderation: Modalities need to be finalised before November when registration for the board exams takes place, a senior official has said(Kunal Patil/HT Photo)

New Delhi: The HRD Ministry will soon call a meeting of officials from the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and 32 other boards to discuss the way forward on scrapping of the moderation policy.

Moderation policy refers to a practice in which students’ marks are ‘adjusted’ for papers regarded as ‘unusually difficult’, or if there have been differences in the sets of question papers.

CBSE and 32 other boards had developed a consensus on scrapping of the moderation policy in a meeting on April 24. However, the Delhi High Court had asked CBSE to not scrap the policy, saying it was not advisable to implement the change mid-way.

CBSE was earlier believed to have been considering challenging the high court order but was advised against it by legal counsel that moving the Supreme Court could be counter- productive and could also delay results.

“The court had directed that the decision should not be implemented in the middle of an academic session. To implement it from next academic session a decision has to be taken and the modalities need to be finalised before November when registration for the board exams takes place,” a senior official said.

“Boards have been asked to disclose their moderation policies and the HRD Ministry will convene a meeting of CBSE and other boards to discuss the way forward,” the official added.

The Centre has also set up a panel to ensure uniform marking for students giving the Class 12 exam in 2018 by asking schools boards across India to stop “inflating marks” under the “often abused practice” of moderation leading to unusually high scores.

The panel -- Inter Board Working Group (IWBG) headed by CBSE chairperson Rakesh Chaturvedi with members from Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Manipur and ICSE boards -- will address issues arising from the decisions taken in the April 24 meeting.

HRD minister Prakash Javadekar had recently said that the states had mutually agreed on the scrapping and the ministry will not interfere in its implementation.